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Does Williams write the Lyrics for his songs?


King Mark

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Double Trouble,Duel of the Fates, For Always Vocal version, Star of Bethlehem, Somewhere in my Memory, Cast a Christmas Spell, A Winter's Spell, Christmas Star  ..etc...

 

I never asked myself that question oddly

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Well Double Trouble is Shakespeare and Duel of the Fates was a translation of an existing poem. I'm not sure about others though.

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King Mark look at the liner notes and you will see who wrote the lyrics in most cases. 

But remember Barry Manilow wrote the song the makes the whole world sing.

 

Now some genXr asks whose Barry Manilow.

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Just now, Steve McQueen said:

He didn't write the Coca-Cola song, did he?

 

Look at the liner notes. 👅

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11 minutes ago, Steve McQueen said:

If I can trust the top of my head, the lyrics for Star of Bethlehem and Somewhere In My Memory were written by Leslie Bricusse. 

 

Yes, Leslie Bricusse has done a lot of lyric work for Williams over the years. And others. I don't believe he has ever written his own lyrics, except maybe some choral passages.

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There's got to be a morning after 
If we can hold on through the night 
We have a chance to find the sunshine 
Let's keep on looking for the light
Oh, can't you see the morning after? 
It's waiting right outside the storm 
Why don't we cross the bridge together 
And find a place that's safe and warm?
It's not too late, we should be giving 
Only with love can we climb 
It's not too late, not while we're living 
Let's put our hands out in time
There's got to be a morning after 
We're moving closer to the shore 
I know we'll be there by tomorrow 
And we'll escape the darkness 
We won't be searching anymore
There's got to be a morning after 
(There's got to be a morning after) 
There's got to be a morning after 
(There's got to be a morning after) 
There's got to be a morning after 
(There's got to be a morning after) 
(repeat and fade out)
 
Lyrics not by John Williams
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1 hour ago, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

Stop that!

 

We may never love like this again
Don't stop the flow
We can't let go
We may never love like this again
And touch the sky
Now we may try
So while we here
Let's give up all
We listed the dreams inside us
And set them free
Oh, while we here
Let's live a mark
There's a candle in the dark
It's here to guide us
We may never love like this again
But through the days
Beyond the highs
I'll see you
Reaching out to hold me
I don't know just
Where or when
Still I'm sure
We'll love again, we'll love again
We'll love again (we may never love like this again)
We'll love again (we may never love like this again)
We'll love again (we may never love like this again)
We'll love again (we may never love like this again)
lyrics Not by John Williams. 
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Can you read my mind?
Do you know what it is you do to me?
Don't know who you are
Just a friend from another star.

Here I am, like a kid at the school
Holding hands with a god or a fool
Will you look at me, quivering,
Like a little girl, shivering,
You can see right through me.

Can you read my mind?
Can you picture the things I'm thinking of?
Wondering why you are
All the wonderful things you are.
You can fly, you belong to the sky
You and I could belong to each other.

If you need a friend,
I'm the one to fly too
If you need, to be loved
Here I am, 
Read my mind!

Songwriters: John T. Williams / Leslie Bricusse

 

Lyrics not by John Williams but this time the music is.

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10 hours ago, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

Here I am like a kid out of school, quivering, like a little girl, shivering...

 

Where's the #MeToo movement?

Because that lyric is in no way related 

2 hours ago, King Mark said:

I forgot about Leslie Briscusse

How is that even possible?

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On 12/14/2018 at 1:51 AM, The Lost Folio said:

I did this list of all the songs that have been published. There's a list by lyricist at the bottom: https://sites.google.com/view/johnwilliamspiano/home/songs

 

Nice list. Maybe you would like to add his song cycle "Seven for Luck", poetry by Rita Dove. The soprano+piano reduction was published by Hal Leonard.

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1 minute ago, Nick Parker said:

I think he's so instrumentally attuned, he writes vocal lines like they're instrumental parts! 

A criticism leveled at Beethoven!  Not bad company, I'd say.

 

1 minute ago, Nick Parker said:

the African-American experience is probably Williams' strongest and most prevalent musical inspiration. 

Oh, yes.  There is something profoundly moving about Amistad and Rosewood, a certain element in those scores very unique in his work.

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On 12/14/2018 at 2:51 AM, The Lost Folio said:

I did this list of all the songs that have been published. There's a list by lyricist at the bottom: https://sites.google.com/view/johnwilliamspiano/home/songs

 

You might also find interest in this old thread of mine (a complete list of JW songs, but also some that are not published):

 

 

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1 hour ago, Bespin said:

Thank you, thank you. You’ve been a wonderful audience tonight. And now I will sing Yub Nub from the movie The Return of the Jedi.

Happy to join for a duet!

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2 hours ago, Nick Parker said:

I would say second to trees and nature, the African-American experience is probably Williams' strongest and most prevalent musical inspiration. 

Which is why he would've written a killer score for The Color Purple.

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50 minutes ago, The Lost Folio said:

Great list @Thor! I'll add a link to your list on my website.

 

I see that all the major songs have been published, but would you say there are some unpublished highlights?

 

Several. I love the "James Bond"-ian feel of "Uno di Qua, L'Altra di La", for example. The two WAGON TRAIN songs are nice too -- don't really sound like Williams, and are interesting for that reason. Also surprised "The Same Hello, The Same Goodbye" hasn't been published(?), what with it being a Sinatra song and everything...even if he never got to perform it.

 

By the way, I had completely forgotten that Williams had written the lyrics for "Look Down, Lord". A rare exception, that.

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40 minutes ago, crumbs said:

What about all the Rosewood songs? Are those actual gospel songs? 

 

No. All originally written by Williams. And -- as we said above -- "Look Down, Lord" is the only song he has written lyrics to himself, AFAIK.

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1 hour ago, Thor said:

"Look Down, Lord" is the only song he has written lyrics to himself, AFAIK.

 

The liner notes in the new Harry Potter boxset say otherwise.

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On 12/17/2018 at 3:35 PM, Thor said:

Also surprised "The Same Hello, The Same Goodbye" hasn't been published(?), what with it being a Sinatra song and everything...even if he never got to perform it.

 

Well, after all, it looks like "The Same Hello, the Same Goodbye" has been published! It's in the Barbra Streisand folio What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman (Cherry Lane Music, 2013). I couldn't find a separate sheet music for the song, yet, but since it's copyrighted 2008-2009, I wouldn't be surprised to find it somewhere else too.

 

Do we know when it would have been composed? I listed it as 2008 on my website since that is the copyright date.

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On 12/17/2018 at 11:34 AM, Miguel Andrade said:

 

Nice list. Maybe you would like to add his song cycle "Seven for Luck", poetry by Rita Dove. The soprano+piano reduction was published by Hal Leonard.

 

I finally added Seven for Luck to my website.

 

I also added "Dream Away" from The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, with lyrics by Paul Williams (who also did Cinderella Liberty that same year, 1973). It was officially published in a 1978 Paul Williams anthology. I should have a look at it in a week or two.

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11 hours ago, The Lost Folio said:

Do we know when it would have been composed? I listed it as 2008 on my website since that is the copyright date.

 

No, we're struggling to find the exact composition date. But the late 70s is the approximate period.

 

1 hour ago, Richard said:

You didn't know "by the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes"?

 

Is that how it goes? It's been years since I listened to any of my HARRY POTTER soundtracks, and even longer since I saw any of the films.

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I see. Not only has it been long since I saw a HARRY POTTER film, it's also ages since I read Shakespeare -- way back when he was part of the curriculum of my English degree at the university (late 90s). I have fonder recollections of the romantics like Shelley, Byron, Wordsworth & co. JULIUS CAESAR is probably the Shakespeare play I remember the most, for some reason.

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14 hours ago, The Lost Folio said:

...I listed it as 2008 on my website since that is the copyright date.

Hold your horse, captain.

Your website? Another JW website? Another rooster in the henhouse (!).

Bespin isn't going to like this at all, unless it's a Streisand site, then that's ok. Our Bes might like that...but somehow I doubt it.

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Let's just say that Bespin and I have different perspectives. (A while ago, I actually asked him if he wanted to combine our websites. I let you guess his answer...) I wish there could be a single, extensive website about the different aspects of JW's career.

 

I did my website because I believed it was time for a John Williams bibliography. There are so many lists of works, but I could not find a list of publications. That's what I tried to do with The John Williams Piano Collection. I know not many people here seem to play piano, but I hope the information I provide can be useful to fans as well as archivists, musicologists, and scholars.

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